NVIDIA 7950 GT Roundup - Speedbump to High End

At the beginning of September NVIDIA released their reincarnation of the G71 based GeForce 7900 GT. As midrange card the 7900GT seem to be the best buy for a big group of gamers in the first half of 2006. This time around they’ve given the mid-range card a speed boost to high end! With world leading VGA partners offering their version right away let´s see which can give us the best 7950 GT.

Introduction

Introduction

On the 14th of September nVidia released their brand new reincarnation of the G71 based GeForce 7900 GT. As midrange card the 7900 GT seem to be the best buy for a big group of gamers in the first half of 2006. This time nVidia brings us the same product... but way faster! World leading VGA partners jumped in right away. Today we have ASUS, EVGA and Sparkle being challenged to each other, let's have a look:

Asus has a wide range of PC products available and has proven to deliver very successful combinations in the past. They don't hesitate to design their own PCB or give us upgraded versions of the reference designs. Though, this time they didn't seem to put a lot of effort in their newest G71 based graphic accelerator. Here's the ASUS EN 7950 GT:

ASUS EN7950GT 550/700 -> €289

EVGA has been on the VGA market for a few years now but many people might have never heard of them. Though, if we take a look at their latest hardware release we did get enthusiastic to say the least. EVGA is one to keep an eye on in the future. Here is their gladiator:

EVGA e-GeForce 7950GT KO Superclocked 600/725 -> +- €310~€320

Sparkle established already 25 years ago. They claim to be very motivated, let's hope they're right on that one, they have a strong competition here. Sparkle is the only manufacturer that has chosen to not follow the nVidia reference design. Here is the SF-PX795GDH Sparkle 7950 GT:

Sparkle 7950GT SF-PX795GDH 550/700 -> €259

We're going to see more investigation further down this review, but before that let's have a look at what nVidia's 7950 GT has to offer us.